Hip-hop producer Alex Da Kid has three tracks on Eminem's 'The Marshall Mathers LP 2' and an Imagine Dragons song on the new 'Hunger Games' soundtrack. / Scott Nathan

by Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY

by Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY

You might say that producer Alex Da Kid is a wizard with a laptop, lending his magic touch to some of the biggest songs and albums of the past few years, including new efforts from Eminem and The Hunger Games.

A London-bred producer now living in Los Angeles, Alex Da Kid (also known as Alexander Grant) shot to fame producing Eminem's 6-million-selling hit Rihanna collaboration Love the Way You Lie, as well as three tracks off Slim Shady's latest effort, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, out Tuesday.

The duo was introduced in 2010 when Eminem heard B.o.B's Grant-produced Airplanes and asked the producer if he had any other songs for the rapper's then-upcoming album, Recovery. After sending him Lie, Grant went into the studio with Eminem while Rihanna recorded the chorus in Dublin, and they ultimately completed the soon-to-be smash in two days. The pair have steadily collaborated ever since, on a remix of Airplanes, Part II of Lie from Rihanna's Loud album, and on Dr. Dre's I Need a Doctor with singer Skylar Grey.

It was a "completely seamless" transition to working on the Marshall Mathers sequel, says Grant, who produced the songs A------, Desperation and Wicked Ways, the latter two appearing as bonus tracks on the album's deluxe edition, also out Tuesday.

"I'll just give him a big stash of ideas I come up with, often with choruses on them already," Grant, 30, says of their creative process for this album. "The next time I go (to Detroit to record with Eminem), he'll have one or two of the ones he liked, we'll work on those and then I'll give him some more ideas."

Starting out in the U.K. as a semi-professional soccer player for Championship League team Bristol City, Grant caught the producing bug at 19 when a friend gave him Fruity Loops production software, which he immediately fell in love with.

"I locked myself in my bedroom and got rid of all my friends and just became obsessed with it," Grant says. "I just dedicated my whole life to being the best I could be at it. Everything else wasn't really important anymore."

After moving to New York in 2008, Grant worked his way up, eventually rubbing shoulders with big-name producers such as Akon and Swizz Beatz before moving to L.A. His breakout year came in 2010, when he scored hits with Airplanes and Lie and Nicki Minaj's Massive Attack, going on to produce radio smashes for hip-hop acts such as T.I., Lupe Fiasco and Diddy â?? Dirty Money.

He has since formed his own record label, KIDinaKORNER Records, under the umbrella of Interscope Records, and signed Grey and popular alt-rockers Imagine Dragons. Executive-producing Dragons' debut album Night Visions - which has sold 1.5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and includes hit singles Radioactive and Demons - Grant also helped produce the band's Who We Are, a new track featured on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack (out Nov. 19).

"Everything we've done has happened really organically," Grant says of his collaborations with the group. "One thing I love about them is that they're not afraid to take risks. (Who We Are) has a very hip-hop beat, which is interesting."

Moving forward, Grant hopes to move into producing entire film soundtracks ("I would love to do some movie stuff with Quentin Tarantino," he says), and has Pearl Jam, Jay Z and Kanye West on his collaboration wish list.

As for future tracks with Eminem? He'd be up for it. The producer has nothing but effusive praise for his longtime friend and collaborator, who he says has enjoyed career longevity in part because of the rapper's relatable lyrics and identifiable back story.

"He's a great songwriter, a great performer ... When you meet him, you forget really quickly that you're with someone who's (one of the biggest-selling artists) of his generation," Grant says.

"He can really disarm people with his charisma, and all those things combined make him who he is."